Night had fallen on the Old Port of Marseille, where the rapper Alonzo’s concert started half an hour ago, and the crowd had swelled beyond the 150,000 mark. Even still, people keep flocking to the Canebière to get closer to the show. The police had already let through a few thousand more spectators to ease the pressure on the barriers, and a line of national police had been deployed to deter any more from squeezing in. Tension mounted, then subsided after 10 pm.

Perhaps the event turned out to be a bit too successful for its own good. Up to that point, everything had been smooth sailing as Marseille – which for one day on Wednesday, May 8, claimed the title of “center of the world” – celebrated the arrival of the Olympic torch in France. The torch arrived in the port of the country’s second-largest city on board the Belem, a majestic three-masted ship.

The day’s events had gone off without a hitch, with a spirit of widespread excitement. Whether at sea, where a myriad of boats traversed the gentle waves, or on land, where a patient crowd observed the festivities – 230,000 people have attended, according to Marseille’s city hall – or in the skies, electrified by an acrobatic airshow featuring the fighter jets of the Patrouille de France.

On the podium in front of the Quai des Belges, three-time Olympic champion Marie-Jo Pérec expressed her emotion. Football star Didier Drogba got the crowd singing along as if at the Vélodrome Stadium, and astronaut Thomas Pesquet emphasized the symbolic aspect of the event, sounding at times like a politician: “France is rediscovering itself with these Games. We’re all going to come together, and that’s something that doesn’t happen very often.” President Emmanuel Macron was booed when he arrrived on the Old Port, and Naestro, “the tenor of the street,” brought the crowd to its feet with his rendition of “La Marseillaise.”

Mayor Benoît Payan (left wing) savored the moment: “The people of Marseille have won the first gold medal.” “A simple ceremony, which brings joy,” added Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline, archbishop of the Diocese of Marseille. And when a rainbow – almost the Olympic colors! – framed the Old Port just minutes after the cauldron had been set ablaze, the clergyman said to the city’s mayor: “When it was all over, heaven added its touch. You can’t order that.”

‘It changes the way you look at the city’

“The Marseillaise” had first sounded in the morning, in front of the Porte d’Aix, where the local authorities celebrated the anniversary of V-E Day. After the military music, the foghorns sounded at around 11 am, as the Belem began to sail into Marseille waters. “Look, you can see it!” Perched on a stepladder, Sébastien Cherubino stood on tiptoe. The sun was already beating down, and the 52-year-old craftsman had been working on the hull of his Marseille-style fishing boat in the port of Estaque for a while. The Belem appears on the horizon. A point on the sea.

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